Home Office

Immigration Controls: France

lord hylton: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the WrittenAnswer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 11 April (HL 6694), who is the newly appointed Migration Liaison Officer with France; howthat individualmay be contacted; and what assessment they have made of the extent to which Franco-British cooperation has improved since 1 February when the Sandhurst Treaty was signed.

baroness williams of trafford: The UK and France enjoy a special relationship based on shared values and priorities. The UK-France Summit on 18 January was successful in demonstrating the strong bilateral relationship with France on co-operating on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The Sandhurst Treaty has provided an additional framework to build on this existing cooperation, and as part of the Treaty we deployed a UK Liaison Officer to France this month to support transfers between the UK and France under the Dublin Regulation and section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016. The Home Office does not disclose the personal details of its officials. However, the role of the UK Liaison Officer will be to provide case-working support and aid operational discussion on the development of the Dublin III Regulation. Cooperation continues on all other elements of the Treaty; the UK-France Migration Committee most recently met on 27 March 2018. The Committee routinely discusses ongoing co-operation on migration and border security, including how agreed funding should be spent. This meeting followed a similar pattern with a particular focus on implementing elements of the Sandhurst Treaty such as improvements to port security and infrastructure, and measures to reduce the impact of migration on Northern French ports.

Undocumented Migrants: Private Rented Housing

lord bassam of brighton: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many checks by private landlords have been carried out on private tenants under theterms of the Housing and Planning Act 2016; and how many of those checks have led to immigration enforcement action being taken by the immigration authorities.

baroness williams of trafford: This question references the Housing and Planning Act. Right to rent checks were introduced in the 2014 Immigration Act and strengthened in the 2016 Act and the answer has been framed with that in mind.The information requested is not held centrally. Landlords and letting agents undertake these checks independently and are not expected to notify the Home Office when they are completed.

Private Rented Housing

lord bassam of brighton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they provide to private landlords completing checks on potential tenants under the terms of the Housing and Planning Act 2016; and what measures are in place to ensure that landlord checks are not used to harass tenants.

baroness williams of trafford: Landlords and letting agents undertake right to rent checks in accordance with the 2014 Immigration Act. These are conducted independently of the Home Office.Guidance for landlords is available as:an online right to rent aid, which can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/landlord-immigration-checkcodes of practice, which can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-rent-landlords-code-of-practice.a range of published guidance for landlords to view at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-bill-part-3-access-to-services The codes of practice provides practical guidance on how landlords cancomply with their obligations under the scheme whilst avoiding unlawfuldiscrimination.

Immigration: Interviews

lord roberts of llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to ensure that two decision makers are involved in each Home Office immigration interview.

baroness williams of trafford: There are no current plans to ensure two decision makers are involved in interviews for all application routes.

Visas: Peru

baroness coussins: To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the lifting in 2014 of the Schengen visa requirement for visitors from Peru and of the introduction by Peru in 2016 of biometric passports which comply with international security and control standards, whether the forthcoming Home Office review of visa requirements will restore the pre-1996 visa exemption for visitors to the UK from Peru.

baroness williams of trafford: The UK does not participate in the Border and Immigration aspects of the Schengen Acquis and has no current plans to change the visa requirements for citizens of Peru. Visas are a key part of the UK’s border and national security system. The UK keeps visa regimes under regular review. A visa regime does not set a higher bar, it merely changes where a decision about entry is made.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Department for Exiting the European Union: Databases

lord harris of haringey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the Department forExiting the European Union'sdata is hosted (1) in the UK, and (2) overseas.

lord callanan: All data held by the Department for Exiting the European Union is hosted by the Cabinet Official Platform or SECRET system. It is estimated that 95% of Cabinet Office OFFICIAL data (a proportion of which is DExEU data) is hosted on cloud services, which distributes encrypted packets of data across data centres in the UK and abroad. The remaining data, as well as that which is SECRET and above, is hosted exclusively in the UK.

British Nationals Abroad: EU Countries

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have received assurances from each of the EU27 regarding the capability of those countries to cope with a potential influx of British expatriates looking for residence rights in the EU; and what steps they will take to ensure that British expatriates looking for residency in the EU27 experience a smooth transition.

lord callanan: The agreement we have reached on citizens’ rights will mean that all UK nationals resident in the EU before the end of the implementation period will be able to continue living their lives broadly as now. All UK nationals resident in the European Union by 31 December 2020 will fall under the Citizens’ Rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement. A smooth and orderly UK exit from the EU is in the interest of all Member States. We are working to understand what systems, processes and infrastructure Member States will be putting in place ahead of the UK’s EU exit.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Food: Import Duties

lord jopling: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Gardiner of Kimble on 16 April (HL6809) on food prices and the removal of external import tariffs, whether they will now answer the question.

lord gardiner of kimble: The Government has and continues to undertake a wide range of analysis looking at the implications of UK withdrawal from the EU. Our programme of analysis is constantly developing and evolving, and includes sectoral analysis. The Government has published 14 detailed papers on the negotiations to date, and will continue to be as open as possible subject to the overwhelming national interest of preserving our negotiating position Ministers have a specific responsibility, endorsed by Parliament, not to release information that would undermine our negotiating position. It would therefore not be appropriate for the Government to commit to publishing a sector by sector analysis. The impact on food prices as a result of any future changes to import tariffs will depend on the result of EU withdrawal negotiations and the trading scenario that follows. Many external researchers have analysed the impact of both a World Trade Organisation Most Favourable Nation scenario and a unilateral liberalisation scenario. Neither of these extreme scenarios represent Government policy. The Government is pursuing a unique and ambitious economic partnership that provides the greatest possible tariff free and frictionless trade with the EU. This is a mutually beneficial choice and we are confident we can achieve this. We are also pursuing new trade deals with countries outside the EU.The most important drivers of change in the cost of food are commodity prices, exchange rates and oil prices. These drivers will continue to apply in any trading agreement we reach with the EU.